Hyperthermia today: Electric energy, a new opportunity in cancer treatment

Abstract

Hyperthermia is an ancient, but nowadays rapidly developing treatment method in tumor-therapy. Its new paradigm applied in the electro-hyperthermia (oncothermia), which provides energy by means of electric-field and produces non-equilibrium thermal situation in the tissue. The temperature gradients formed in stationary conditions, destroy the membrane of the malignant cells and selectively eliminate the cancer tissue. The characteristic control parameter is the absorbed energy-dose, which is partly used to make the distortions, partly to increase the temperature of the target. This type of technique could be applied for some tumor sites, including brain, soft tissues, liver and abdominal masses, pancreatic cancer, head and neck tumors as well.

Strong synergy of heat and modulated electromagnetic field in tumor cell killing

“…The change of the temperature paradigm was urged on a theoretical basis [36,39], supported by clinical observations as well [12,38]. In the light of the present experimental results, the temperature effect alone misleads the discussions [39].…”

Upregulation of heat shock proteins and the promotion of damage-associated molecular pattern signals in a colorectal cancer model by modulated electrohyperthermia

“…Elevated glycolysis in tumor cells, known as the Warburg effect, can increase permittivity and conductivity (Andocs et al 2009b;Blad and Baldetorp 1996;Blad et al 1999;Fiorentini and Szasz 2006;Zou and Guo 2003), which support mEHT to selectively damage tumor cells (Andocs et al 2009a) without affecting normal tissues. The electric field and heat can induce cellular stress signals (Balogh et al 2013) leading to Bax-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction, pore formation, and programmed cell death (Meggyeshazi et al 2014).…”

“…Modulated electrohyperthermia (mEHT) is a non-invasive local technique using capacitive coupled 13.56-MHz radiofrequency for targeted destruction of tumor cells (Andocs et al 2009a) based on the elevated conductivity, permittivity, and current density in cancer compared to normal tissue (Andocs et al 2009b;Blad and Baldetorp 1996;Blad et al 1999;Fiorentini and Szasz 2006;Zou and Guo 2003). We have previously revealed that mEHT at <42°C can dominantly induce a caspase-independent programmed cell death in HT29 colorectal cancer xenografts as a result of cell stress synergistically induced by the electric field and heat (Andocs et al 2009a;Meggyeshazi et al 2014).…”

Androtherm Application for the Peyronie's Disease

“…So these points are realized, and this procedure is called modulated electrohyperthermia or oncothermia [46] and it is specialized now for andrology. It is a well-designed capacitive coupling on 13.56 MHz free frequency [47].…”